A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



with the earldoms of Lancaster, Lincoln, and Derby. The other moiety, 

 with the earldom of Leicester, came into John's hands on the death a year 

 later of the younger daughter Maud.^"^ 



Six months after the reunion of Duke Henry's heritage the ducal title 

 was revived (13 November, 1362), in favour of his son-in-law, but without 

 a grant of palatine rights in the county."'^ For the present John had to be 

 content with the lesser jura regalia which Henry enjoyed in all his lands 

 before 1351."'" It was not until, fifteen years later, he was practically ruler 

 of England that he secured palatine jurisdiction in Lancashire. In January, 

 1377, he packed a Parliament in which was undone the work of the ' Good 

 Parliament ' that had come into such bitter conflict with him a few months 

 before. It was with the assent of the prelates and nobles there assembled 

 that the king, now in his dotage, ' considering the strenuous probity and 

 eminent wisdom ' of his son, made Lancashire once more a county palatine. 

 The grant ran in exactly the same terms as that made to the first duke, 

 contained the same reservations, and like it was limited to the grantee's life.'" 

 From the day on which it was made, 28 February, 1377, John of Gaunt 

 reckoned the years of his ' regality ' by which his Lancashire charters are 

 dated. Some doubt arising as to the exact extent of the jura regalia covered 

 by the general words of the grant, he obtained, in the second year of 

 Richard II, a supplementary charter in which his right to have his own 

 exchequer in the county, with barons and other ministers necessary thereto, 

 and to appoint his justices in eyre for pleas of the forest, and other justices 

 for all manner of pleas touching the assize of the forest within the county 

 (except where the crown was a party) received express recognition.'*" 



The continued existence of the palatinate remained dependent on the 

 duke's life until 1390, when Richard, who had just emancipated himself 

 from the control of the Lords Appellant and needed the support of his eldest 

 uncle, acceded to his request that the palatine jurisdiction, like the ducal 

 dignity, should be entailed upon his heirs male."' 



Some of the mischievous effects of the creation of such a ' state within 

 the state ' had already made themselves felt. Edward Ill's wars seem to have 

 mitigated the lawlessness so rampant in the county at the beginning of his 

 reign by drawing away the more disorderly elements, and this relief might 

 be set off against the heavy taxation and drain of men which they entailed. 

 The Black Death, too, must have helped to silence strife. In Duke Henry's 

 time, at all events, the special commissions into felonies and trespasses were 

 discontinued on the complaint of the inhabitants that {inter alia) they impeded 

 them in their business, and the enforcement of the law was left to the 



" G.E.C. Complete Peerage, v, 8 ; S. Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt (an elaborate and valuable 

 monograph). 



'" Rot. Pari, ii, 279; Hardy, Chart. Dtuhy of Lane. 17. It was now ordered that all pleas and sessions of 

 justices in the county should be held at Lancaster and not elsewhere; Cal. Pot. 138 1-5, p. 336. The 

 justices had not infrequently sat at Preston and Wigan. 



'* These were first granted to him in the limited extent in which they were possessed by Henry before 

 1342, in Blanche's moiety on 13 Nov. 1361 (Hardy, op. cit. 12), and in Maud's on 12 May, 1362 ; ibid 14. 

 Two years later Henry's surrender in 1349 of the fuUer liberties granted in fee tail in 1342 was declared to have 

 been ultra E/r«, and these franchises were confirmed (14 July, 1364), to John and Blanche and the heirs of 

 their bodies ; ibid. 19. On 4 June, 1377, they were extended to the lands he received in exchange for the 

 earldom of Richmond (ibid. 35). 



';' Ibid. 32. «• Ibid. 62. 



„. .'''^''!'^-,^^: ^'^ y^"-^^ I^'" ^^« franchises enjoyed by him in all his lands and fees received some 

 additions, including the assize of bread, wine and ale ; ibid. 92. 



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